After earning my PhD from the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 2014—where my dissertation received the Academy’s Distinguished PhD Award—I pursued postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School. In 2018, I returned to CAS as a full professor and now lead the Animal Function Adaptation and Evolution Laboratory at the Institute of Zoology. I also serve as an adjunct professor and PhD supervisor at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). My laboratory is housed within CAS’s Research Building, a hub for cutting-edge work in zoology, conservation biology, systematics, and stem cell biology.

My research, grounded in evolutionary biology and computational methods, bridges conservation biology, adaptive evolution, and aging. Since 2011, I have focused on mammalian comparative biology, particularly ecological and genetic adaptations. This work has yielded key insights, such as identifying adaptive genetic mechanisms in endangered mammals (e.g., snub-nosed monkeys, baiji dolphins), pioneering methods to evaluate coronavirus susceptibility across mammals, and decoding longevity-associated genomes in organisms like naked mole rats and bats.

Building on these foundations, my current work explores how environmental adaptations shape lifespan in mammals. Our findings reveal that group-living species exhibit extended longevity and faster evolutionary transitions to long-lived states compared to solitary species, highlighting a deep interplay between sociality and lifespan evolution. Notably, we observe organ-specific variation in selection pressures on longevity genes and identify methionine restriction-related pathways as shared targets of natural selection and artificial lifespan interventions. These discoveries suggest that lifespan regulation arises via polygenic, indirect selection, where adaptive genetic changes inadvertently "hitchhike" through populations, creating non-random longevity effects. To test this evolutionary framework empirically, my lab is developing strategies to disentangle how adaptive substitutions collectively influence lifespan—a pursuit that promises novel insights into the molecular drivers of longevity.

2023 Outstanding scientific and technological workers awards, The Society for Ecological of China

2019 The Second Prize of Natural Science Award, Hunan Province, China

2018 Youth scientist awards in Ocean Biology, BGI and Qingdao Government, Qingdao, China

2015 Excellent Thesis of Doctor's Degree in Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

2013 Excellent Thesis of Master's Degree in Jiangsu Province, China

2013 Travel award for IMC11, The International Society for Mammals

2012 Excellent Thesis of Master's Degree in Nanjing Normal University, China

2011 Excellent Young Researchers in Jiangsu Zoological Society, China

2008 Excellent Thesis of Bachelor's Degree in Anhui Normal University, China

1. Nucleic Acids Research. 2026; 54 (10):gkag544. (唯一通讯)
2. Science Advances. 2024; 10(51):eadq0702. (末位通讯)
3. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 2024; 41 (12):msae208. (唯一通讯)
4. EMBO reports. 2024; 25(12): 5620. (唯一通讯)
5. PLoS Biology. 2024; 22 (8): e3002778. (唯一通讯)
6. The EMBO journal. 2023; 42 (17): EMBJ2022112740. (唯一通讯)
7. Aging Cell. 2023; 22 (9): e13917. (唯一通讯)
8. The ISME Journal. 2023; 17 (4):549-560. (唯一通讯)
9. Nature Communications. 2023;14 (1):372. (末位通讯)
10. The Innovation. 2020; 1:(3). (唯一通讯)